SKILL - X

2020 - odd sem

Automatic Self-Sanitizing
Letter Box

Team Members
Abhishek Kumar Gupta 02
Ashutosh Prasad Yadav 10
Bapun Sahoo 11
 INDEX
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 CONCEPT
 WORKING
 COST ANALYSIS & COMPONENTS
 ADVANTAGES
 DISADVANTAGES
 CONCLUSION
 REFERENCE
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I hereby, completing this project, would like to express
our very great appreciation to our teachers, who gave me
the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project. Which
also helped me in doing a lot or research and I came to
know about so many new things.
The successful and final outcome of this assignment
required lots of guidance and assistance from many
people.
I would also like to expand my deepest gratitude to all
those who have directly and indirectly guided me in
writing this assignment.
Lastly, I would like to extend my gratitude to authors of
the papers and information sources without
which this project would not have been possible.
 ABSTRACT
To contribute to the fight with the ongoing crisis our
team came up with a very simple idea where we
sanitize the postal mail using a device which
automatically turns on when a mail is inserted in it,
once the device is on it uses Ultraviolet light to kill the
virus making it safer for the user to handle the mail.

We use UVC light as it has the most energy. A recent

study in the American Journal of Infection Control
(AJIC) investigated using UVC light to kill large
amounts of the new coronavirus.
The study found that UVC light exposure completely
inactivated the virus in 9 minutes.
 INTRODUCTION
The device is a normal letterbox where all the required
components can be installed to make it automatic mail
sanitizing machine.
The device is easy to make and easy to use. To make it
portable we made the concept via the use of batteries but
with the use of power converter we can easily make it run
with the alternating current of our home.
It should also be mentioned that not all UV lights are
capable of killing virus, only UVC has enough energy in it
to get the job done. Hence using UVA and UVB will be
useless.
Lastly it is also very important to know that UVC exposure
is unlikely to cause acute or long-term damage to the skin
but can cause severe acute damage to the eye and
hence a direct exposer to the eye should be avoided.

CONCEPT
The device can be break down into 4 basic modules-

1st- The letterbox itself which act as the cabinet for all the
hardware which will be installed in it. The box should not
be transparent / translucent.

2nd- An Arduino Uno board that will be used to detect that

a letter has been inserted and then turn on the UVC light
for 9 minutes to sanitize the device.

3rd- The UVC led module which turns on automatically for

9 minutes when a postal mail is inserted.
4th- A 20-volt power unit which will be used to power the
Arduino and the UVC led module.
 WORKING
So, the first part is to detect that a letter has been
inserted, to achieve this - many methods can be used but
to make it cost efficient we recommend that a very thin
and small metal rod connected to a spring and is fixed on
the letter-hole of the box. Fixed in a manner that the rod
has to move from its place to allow the letter to move in.
But will go back as it is connected to a spring and while it
was displaced by the letter it connects itself to another
metal rod hence closing the circuit. These two mental via
wires will be connected to the Arduino which will detect it
as a button press and then turn on the led for 9 minutes.
The led panel will be directly connected to the Arduino
board and will turn on after a button press.
For power supply two 11.1 volt Lithium Polymer Batteries
will be used which will be connected in series to give us
22.2 volt, to bring it down to 20 volt a Potentiometer will
be used.

COST ANALYSIS & COMPONENTS

1. Lamba's Wall Mounted Plastic Letter Box - ₹ 765.00

2. Pokar RO Anti Bacteria UV LED Strip - ₹ 180.00

3. 2x 1500mAh 3S 40C (11.1v) LiPo Battery - ₹

2600.00
4. Arduino UNO R3 - ₹ 530.00

5. Rotary Carbon Potentiometer- ₹ 140.00

Few extra components like connecting wires and hot Glue

to hold everything to its place will be required. The
batteries used here are rechargeable so the user will also
require a charger to charge the batteries. The box only
needs to add a drum connector for its recharging module.
So adjusting to all that the cost of components, Cost of
product may vary around - ₹ 4,500
 ADVANTAGES
The major benefit of UV disinfection systems is that it
requires no chemicals. There are no toxic chemical or
carcinogenic by-products left behind when UV
disinfection is used.

UV disinfection systems are often safer for the

personnel using them than chemical systems, and
eliminating the need to produce, store and transport
dangerous and potentially toxic chemicals.

UV disinfection inactivates pathogens which have

developed a resistance to chlorine and other
chemicals, such as cryptosporidium.

The system also doesn’t require manual process of

turning on and off the UV light as the system is fully
automatic.
 DISADVANTAGES
The main disadvantage of this system is that it can
only sanitize the surface of the postal mail and as it is
not able to penetrate and surface the inside of the
letter can still be contaminated.

The second disadvantage is that it requires time, as

recommended by AJIC at least 9 minutes will be
required for the system to sanitize the surface.

One more major disadvantage is that looking toward it

directly can cause eye problem as the UVC an be
really harmful for our eyes.
 CONCLUSION

The goal of this project was to design a letter box that

is capable of sanitizing the postal mail dropped in it
automatically, by using UVC light source.
We did research and collected data to finally come up
wit a model that is fully automatic. It can detect that a
letter has been dropped and then it will turn on the
UVC light for 9 minute and automatically shutdown
and wait for the net mail to be dropped in.
It is very helpful very easy to use as user practically
don’t have to do much in order to keep the mail, he is
receiving sanitized.
 REFERENCES

 www.alpha-purify.com/advantages-uv-
disinfection
 https://robu.in/product/
 https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?
topic=114964.0
 https://www.healthline.com/health/does-uv-kill-
coronavirus